No club made a more
dramatic entry into the European Cup than United, who turned in a blockbusting
performance to demolish the Norwegian champions and set up a new club record
score.

With four seasons of Fairs
Cup experience behind them, Leeds were rated as one of the best prepared and
equipped teams to carry the English flag in Europe’s premier club competition,
but no one was ready for the landslide which was to bury Lyn’s team of
students, teachers and clerks.

Lyn, who had reached the
quarter-finals of the European Cup-winners’ Cup the previous season, were on
the rack from the start. Just thirty-five seconds after the kick-off United
swept into attack and the transfer-listed Mike O’Grady drove in a left-foot
shot for what was believed to be the quickest goal in European Cup history.

Three minutes later Mick
Jones powered in a header from a Paul Reaney cross,
and then, after receiving a defence-splitting pass
from Billy Bremner, he hooked a shot in for the third
after nine
minutes. Goals continued to fly past goalkeeper Sven Olsen, who had only
arrived at the ground thirty-five minutes before kick-off.

The rout continued with
goals from Allan Clarke after nineteen minutes, after the £165,000 acquisition
from LeicesterCity had dribbled round three opponents
before planting a left-foot shot into the net. Johnny Giles, in the thirty-fourth minutes,
with a thirty-yard drive which soared past Sven Olsen as United went to the
break 5-0 up.

Allan Clarke got his second
when he headed in a Billy Bremner centre after
forty-seventh minutes. Mick Jones completed his hat-trick, in the sixty-first
minute, when after receiving a pass from Mick Bates his first-time shot hit
both posts before going in. Billy Bremner completed
the scoring in the sixty-fifth and eighty-eighth minutes, the first with a long
range shot and the second again from distance which was deflected past the
keeper, to equal the best-ever score by a British club in Europe.

It could have been more as with
twenty-five minutes left United were in front 9-0 and during the match there
were two occasions when chances were missed. Allan Clarke missed from inside
the six-yard box and Johnny Giles didn’t even bother with a clear opening from
a little further out. Lyn Oslo only had two chances. A free-kick from Olsen was
saved by Gary Sprake as it was streaking towards the
corner of the net, and a back-pass from Jack Charlton looked dangerously close
to becoming an own goal until it just went wide of the post. Alan Thompson of
the Daily Express wrote, “It was so easy, this merciless hammering but it could
have been many more.”

Alternate Report

When talking about big
scores in Europe, the tie that most United’s fans remember would probably be the 10-0 thrashing
of SK Lyn Oslo in September 1969. The European Cup tie ended with a 16-0
score-line as United hit half-a-dozen more goals in Oslo.

Few teams could have made a
more dramatic or eye-catching entry into the European Cup than Don Revie’s men. Their ruthless demolition of the Norwegian
champions was something to savour, though it has to
be accepted that in those days Norwegian football was not very strong and Lyn
Oslo’s team was comprised of part-timers, mostly students, teachers, office
workers and the like.

On the other side of the
coin though, Lyn Oslo had been good enough to get to the quarter-finals of the
European Cup-winners Cup the previous season.

It took less than a minute
for United to open their account when Mike O’Grady scored and two goals from
Mick Jones had United three up in less than nine
minutes. Jones went on to complete his hat-trick with a second half goal and
the others came from Allan Clarke, Johnny Giles and Billy Bremner,
who all scored twice.

United had several key
players absent for the return leg, Jack Charlton, Allan Clarke, Johnny Giles
and Norman Hunter, but they still managed to stroll to a 6-0 win with goals
from Terry Hibbitt (2), Rod Belfitt
(2), Mick Jones and Peter Lorimer.